CD won't appear after multisession burn method

Question

Level 1

99 points

CD won't appear after multisession burn method

Am trying to burn some files on to a CDR (Mac OS Extended) while allowing for future sessions. Followed the following instructions from the Help Menu.

Create a folder for the session and drag the items you want to burn into the folder.
Open Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities.
Select Images > New > "Image from Folder." Then select the folder you created in the navigation window and click Open.
Type a name for the image, choose a disk format, and click Save.
When the disk image is complete, select it in the left column of the Disk Utility window.
Choose Images > Burn or click Burn in the tool bar.
Insert a blank CD in the optical drive.
Select the "Leave disc appendable" checkbox. If you don't see this option, click the triangle in the top-right corner to see this option.
Click Burn.

Progress reports that verification complete, everything appears finished. However, the CD icon disappears from the desktop. It remains in the Disk Utility window, but isn't visible in the finder. If I eject the disk and then put it in the disk drive again, it doesn't show up anywhere. I'm running out of blank CD's. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for the help. Judy

Posted on Sep 12, 2005 12:32 AM

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Answer 1

Chopsuey

Level 4

1,945 points

Sep 12, 2005 3:59 AM in response to another Judy

Hi Judy,

What happens when you put some other CD in?
Is your drive working fine otherwise?

- Chops

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Answer 2

Sep 12, 2005 5:03 AM in response to another Judy

another Judy
Suggest you browse the Discussions topic "eMac > DVD - CD-RW - CD > Discs not mounting-A growing problem?"
You are not alone!! However, my own problem with discs not mounting seems to have disappeared after I updated to OSX 10.3.9. Very strange

One more thing: Your profile only reveals OSX 10.2, could you please update this.

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Answer 3

Sep 12, 2005 12:14 PM in response to another Judy

CDs do not appear on desktop ....
http://macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031207012226892

Procedures to try....

In the Finder/Preferences/General tab, make sure..... "CDs, DVDs, and iPods" is selected.
Some procedures to try...

A) Open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
. Click on Macintosh HD in the left column and then press the Repair Disk Permissions button.
B) Delete the following....
/System/Library/Extension.kextcache
/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernalcaches (folder)
C) Quit System Preferences if it is open....
Delete ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.digihub.plist
D) Restart
E) ZAP the Pram ..Restart and press and hold....
Command-Option-P-R and release after two gongs
F) If it is a bootable CD and it boots up with the C key but will not mount when you are booted up from the internal hard drive...it is a software problem (operating system or third part SW)
F) Try Open Firmware
1. Restart and immediately press ... (Command Option+OF)..... and release when the command line appears.
2. You will have the following options.... type the following and press Return after each item..
set-defaults
reset-nvram
reset-all (continues to boot up)
The following are optional....
eject CD
mac-boot
shutdown

george

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Answer 4

another Judy Author

Level 1

99 points

Sep 12, 2005 6:46 PM in response to roger Symons

Hey Chops,
Yup. Drive worked fine with another CD. Just not the ones that I tried multisession burning on. The one that I did a "regular" burn on had no problem.

I originally thought that this might be a general OSX thing, but the iMac G5 at work went through the process just fine (except for the part where I forgot to check "append", hit "cancel" and got the CD stuck. Restarted w/ mouse button held, it ejected and then things went back to normal again. I shouldn't be so hasty.)

Thanks, Judy

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Answer 5

another Judy Author

Level 1

99 points

Sep 12, 2005 6:51 PM in response to George Orville

Thank you George! Option A (repair permissions) is always my first action. Ran Cocktail all repairs, too. Will try options B-F as soon as I get home in an hour or so and let you all know. A little nervous about the restarts. The old girl's long overdue for an AppleCare visit to repair the 50% of the time black screen on startup thing. However, will give it a try.

Thanks again. Judy

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Answer 6

Mid PS

Level 1

15 points

Dec 10, 2005 7:07 PM in response to another Judy

I recently experienced similar weirdness when I tried to burn a multi-session CD-R using Disk Utility. I followed the instructions on the Help menu faithfully too, and everything seemed to go fine (I got all the congratulatory dialog boxes). When I quit Disk Utility and went to my Desktop, I saw both a CD icon and a 'disk' icon.

Thinking I'd eject the CD and reinsert it to make sure that it had been burnt correctly, I discovered that I couldn't eject the CD by dragging it to the trash. Instead of the Trash turning into the Eject icon, it turned into the (radioactive sign) Burn icon. Naturally, I was puzzled because there had been a message from Disk Utility to say that the CD had been burnt already.

I opened a Finder window to see if I could Eject it using the button in the shortcut menu, but the button again showed up as a Burn icon rather than an Eject icon.

So I hit the Eject key on the keyboard and the CD came right out. BUT the next weird thing was that the 'disk' icon remained on the desktop and in the Finder window shortcut menu! And clicking on it resulted in an error message to the effect that the original disk image could not be found.

When I reinserted the CD-R that had supposedly just been burnt, the CD failed to mount (or, at least, no icon showed up on the desktop or Finder window). I ejected the CD again and tried to burn another (unused) CD-R using the Finder rather than Disk Utility, but I was unable to because the new CD was not recognised either.

So, at a loss for what to do, I restarted the computer. The second time I tried to burn a multisession CD-R, I followed the instructions again, and got all the correct messages again. But I noticed the Burn icon next to the CD again. Thinking that maybe the CD-R hadn't been physically 'burnt' yet (maybe Disk Utility was just preparing the disk image), I clicked on the Burn icon in the Finder window, and got all the usual prompts and messages. What resulted was a blank CD.

After that, I gave up on the multisession disk; I restarted, then created a 'good old' single-session CD using the Finder to burn the CD (and it worked just fine!).

What is happening here? Is Disk Utility correctly burning a multi-session CD for me? Or is there some bug? Or am I doing something wrong?

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Answer 7

Dec 11, 2005 4:11 PM in response to another Judy

Multisession Burning

I have tested this tutorial with three append procedures and it is functional..
1. Insert a blank CD.
2. Open Disk Utility.
3. From the Toolbar, click on "New Image" .... pop up menu appears...
• Save as: (file 1, file 2 or title of folder))
• Where: Desktop is the best choice
• Size: select size from pop up menu
• Encryption: optional
• Format: read/write disk image
4. Click "Create"
• On the desktop, a drive icon titled "file 1" will appear.. For each append procedure... file 2/file 3/file 4...etc .....
5. Go to Finder and locate the file/folder you want to copy.
6. Drag your file to the drive icon "file 1" .... not to the .dmg icon.
• There will be a brief flash as the drive puts your file in the image file.
7. Drag the drive icon "file 1" to the Trash... This is very important step !!
8. In Disk Utility click on "file 1.dmg" to highlight it.
9. In the menu bar, click on "Images">Burn. A pop up menu appears....
10. You may have to click on the triangle in the upper right corner, Then make the following selection.... some items will be grayed out, waiting for the CD to mount..
• Speed; Maximum possible
• Click on: Leave disk appendable
• After burning: click "Verify burn"
• Mount on Desktop
• Burn” (will change to Append after the first burn)
11. Insert CD and when mounted, click on Burn/Append
12. Wait... it will takes a while....CD will dis-mount and you will see ...
• burning
• writing track
• closing track
• closing session
• verifying
• burning was accomplished successfully

• But we're not done . For additional burns, you must create a new image "file 2.dmg"
Repeat steps (2-12).... as you append additional files, name them.."file 2/3/4..etc

• One disk will mount for each Burn/Append procedure

or try the following.....
BurnAgain http://freeridecoding.net/content/PROJECTS/01/burnagain.dmg
• BurnAgain will show only one CD icon on the desktop for Burn/Append...
BurnX Free http://www.hernansoft.com
CD Session Burner at..... http://www.sentman.com
DiscBlaze at ................. http://www.RadicalBreeze.com
provides a nice,neat interface for session burning..

george

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Answer 8

Jan 3, 2006 5:52 PM in response to another Judy

I experienced the same problems.

I've read all the followup posts to this topic, and followed the suggestion from Mr. Orville to delete "kextcache", "com.apple.digihub.plist" and the folder "com.apple.kernalcaches", which made most of the problem go away. The only remaining glitch is that sometimes (but not always), the icon of the latest burn won't show until after I restart. Dr. Smoke's "Troubleshooting Mac OS X, Second Edition" makes note of this problem in an addendum titled "Burning multi-session CDs in Panther". I can live with this nuisance, but I wonder if anyone has a workaround.

It should be noted that the lingering glitch occurs if I follow the official Apple recommended procedure as outlined in Disk Utility Help. Mr. Orville offers a slightly different procedure (Dec 11, 2005 post to this topic). His procedure appears to avoid the abnormality, but I didn't test it enough times to be certain.

Thank you, Mr. Orville, for solving my problem. Also, if anyone knows of any updates to "Burning multi-session CDs in Panther", I would like to know. Now that Tiger is out, I would expect this to be a dead-end issue, but there may be some useful information out there, that I've missed.

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Answer 9

ArcticMac

Level 2

380 points

Jan 3, 2006 7:10 PM in response to another Judy

It seems like you haven't REALLY fineshed burning the CD... you've "left it appendable" which means that you aren't done burning. My GUESS is that if you burn another session and make sure you don't leave the CD appendable after that that it'll show up in the finder after that.

'course, I don't have a cd burner, so I can't try it and I'm just hypothesizing here.

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Answer 10

Jan 5, 2006 1:38 AM in response to George Orville

George Orville:
I have had a long-standing problem with CD-RWs not mounting (as you will see from my posts).
Today i chanced on your post and tried your solutions B followed by D (only B & only D). I think that my problem is at last solved !!

Thanks a lot.

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Answer 11

Jan 5, 2006 11:06 AM in response to another Judy

Judy...Using Help On Multisession Burning is not correct...

Multisession Burning
I have tested this tutorial with three append procedures and it is functional..
1. Insert a blank CD.
2. Open Disk Utility.
3. From the Toolbar, click on "New Image" .... pop up menu appears...
• Save as: (file 1, file 2 or title of folder))
• Where: Desktop is the best choice
• Size: select size from pop up menu
• Encryption: optional
• Format: read/write disk image
4. Click "Create"
• On the desktop, a drive icon titled "file 1" will appear.. For each append procedure... file 2/file 3/file 4...etc .....
5. Go to Finder and locate the file/folder you want to copy.
6. Drag your file to the drive icon "file 1" .... not to the .dmg icon.
• There will be a brief flash as the drive puts your file in the image file.
7. Drag the drive icon "file 1" to the Trash... This is very important step !!
8. In Disk Utility click on "file 1.dmg" to highlight it.
9. In the menu bar, click on "Images">Burn. A pop up menu appears....
10. You may have to click on the triangle in the upper right corner, Then make the following selection.... some items will be grayed out, waiting for the CD to mount..
• Speed; Maximum possible
• Click on: Leave disk appendable
• After burning: click "Verify burn"
• Mount on Desktop
• Burn” (will change to Append after the first burn)
11. Insert CD and when mounted, click on Burn/Append
12. Wait... it will takes a while....CD will dis-mount and you will see ...
• burning
• writing track
• closing track
• closing session
• verifying
• burning was accomplished successfully

• But we're not done . For additional burns, you must create a new image "file 2.dmg"
Repeat steps (2-12).... as you append additional files, name them.."file 2/3/4..etc

• One disk will mount for each Burn/Append procedure

or try the following.....
BurnAgain http://freeridecoding.net/content/PROJECTS/01/burnagain.dmg
• BurnAgain will show only one CD icon on the desktop for Burn/Append...
BurnX Free http://www.hernansoft.com
CD Session Burner at..... http://www.sentman.com
DiscBlaze at ................. http://www.RadicalBreeze.com
provides a nice,neat interface for session burning..

george

iMac Flat Panel 1.25GHz 80GB 256MB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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Answer 12

Jan 31, 2006 1:50 AM in response to George Orville

George Orville:
I previously posted that your procedures B plus D had fixed my "CD not mounting" problem.

I can now confirm this, and add two more comments:
• You will need to repeat B plus D after every Software Update (it seems that the offending file & folder are recreated each time).
• I am pretty sure that B plus D also fixes my Sleep problem - refer to my posts on this topic in a different forum.

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